CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

Underground about 11.30 am - damn hot as usual. Went straight to the undescended pitch into a wet chamber, with the intention of rigging it for a look. Howling gale blowing through the relatively small window into the chamber - damn cold putting bolts in. Having eventually rigged the c 5m pitch, it turned out that there was nothing more than a very big aven, which we were at the bottom of. Fairly clean vertical shaft going up around 30-40m and about 8-10m in diameter. There must be something good at the top of this, judging for the size and draught. Exceptionally wet place when raining outside.

So, having surveyed and derigged Windy Bottom, we thought we'd go for a look at the most southerly extension of the "new bit" (now Chile). Boulder choke looked both hard work and too high up in the hading rift, so we picked a big hole in the floor at the bottom of "Lost in Space" to push instead.

Rigging was exciting due to the huge piles of hanging death all around. Having got over the lip of the pitch, it quickly became aparent that a rebelay would be in order. Unfortunately, the walls of the "pit" were entirely made up of boulders and small rocks glued on with mud - none of which was very appealing for a rebelay. Decided to ignore the rub and proceed to the bottom anyway.

At the bottom is a fairly large extension of the hading rift visible above, in Lost-in-Space. Unfortunately there were no good leads to go any further, so we surveyed and derigged. Time now very short for meeting call-out so exited in a big hurry. 13¼ hrs (Erin)